Chinese computer colossus Lenovo has unveiled an IdeaPad computer that serves as a laptop for work tasks then converts to a touch-screen tablet for play time.The IdeaPad U1 hybrid, with a "LePad" slate that serves as a laptop screen but unplugs to become a tablet computer, made its debut on the cusp of the Thursday opening of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas."It is one device to balance life and work," said Lenovo product manager Leo Li."A keyboard is ...

Smarter devices, homes and cars for the "always-connected lifestyle" are taking centre stage as the annual Las Vegas-based Consumer Electronics Show (CES).Slick new smartphones, ultra-thin laptops, tablet computers to rival Apple's iPad and Web-connected and 3D television sets are expected to grab the most attention during the four-day event at the Las Vegas Convention Center.But the show floor will also feature more smart home appliances such as ovens which can download recipes and vehicles which give drivers hands-free voice control ...

Microsoft sold more than eight million gesture-sensing Kinect controllers for Xbox 360 game consoles in just two months, says the company's chief executive Steve Ballmer.Ballmer used much of his time on stage for a keynote presentation on the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to tout the booming popularity of Xbox 360 devices and the Live online community linked to the consoles.More than 50 million Xbox 360 consoles have been sold worldwide, and Live membership has topped 30 million, ...

Over the past three years WordPress has evolved from being predominantly blog-centric into a full, hands-on content management system (CMS) with more than 15-million blogs being hosted on WordPress.com.While it’s impossible to count the number of standalone sites that are powered by WordPress.org, the self-installed version of Wordpress, we can expect that the number is growing exponentially as the open source software has distinguished itself as the world’s most popular CMS and blogging engine.With thousands of widgets, plugins ...

When we think of Facebook most of us think of it as the domain of the English-speaking world. But the reality is that over 375-million of Facebook’s 585-million users are non-English speakers, which is more than half of all users. One of Facebook's fastest growing regions is South America.The region already has six countries that number in Facebook’s 25 biggest markets - Argentina, Columbia, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela and Peru -- and it contributes more than 56-million users. What’s scary is ...

The iPad may not be all it is cut out to be for magazine publishers. According to Engadget, iPad magazine numbers have dropped. It indicates that iPad magazines benefited from a novelty factor but that the novelty soon wore off.What's puzzling is that iPad sales have been soaring all year; you would expect a rise in magazine subscriptions just based on the percentage of rising iPad sales. Yet we don't see this at all.As Laura June at Engadget reports:"According to ...

It’s not a big surprise to see Nokia’s Symbian operating system is the most popular in Africa. We all knew that, but it’s by how much that draws your attention. Royal Pingdom has an excellent post on the web usage (which is what they can measure) of the top OS use around the world. It’s amazing to see the difference between Africa, Asia and South America as opposed to Europe and North America.While, as a developer, it’s more sexy to ...

It's widely acknowledged that the advent of social media has completely changed our lives. Friends around the world are closer and always in touch, news spreads like wildfire, and communication is instant. With Twitter being used by more than 175-million people, Facebook approaching 600-million and even LinkedIn with over 70-million, it seems that social networking is an unstoppable force.The question begs to be asked: Where will all of this lead us? The impact that these services have had on society ...

Protective cases for the second generation iPad are being sold on Chinese e-commerce website Alibaba -- even before Apple has launched the new device -- and suggest the next model will have a camera.Alibaba spokesman John Spelich said on Tuesday the company had been asked to remove the listings, which showed brightly coloured silicon cases with a small hole in the back on sale for less than three dollars each."Shortly after we were made aware, through blog reports, of the ...

Twitter apparently turned down a 500 million dollar purchase offer from the social networking site Facebook in 2008, according to the Financial Times.In an interview with the British business daily published over the weekend, co-founder Biz Stone said Twitter wanted to become not just a popular site but a viable business, rather than be taken over by another company."We've created something that people are finding value in," he said. "But we haven't yet created a business out of this, and ...